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EARLY  MEXICAN  PRINTERS 


a  Hetter 


FROM 

GEORGE  PARKER  WINSHIP 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/earlymexicanprinOOwinsrich 


A 


EARLY  MEXICAN  PRINTERS. 


X 


FIFTY  COPIES 

PRINTED   ON    THIS  PAPER,    FOR   THE  MEMBERS  OF 

€^t  €lub  Of  (B^ri  ^olumeg* 

February,  1899. 


EARLY  MEXICAN  PRINTERS 


^  iCetter 


FROM 


GEOEGE  PARKER  WLNSHIP 


Reprintkd  fkom  the  Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts 
Historical,  Society,  January  12,  1899 


CAMBRIDGE 

1899 


X  a.  /  o 


BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 


EARLY   MEXICAN   PRINTERS. 


Providence,  December  24,  1898. 

My  dear  Dr.  Green,  —  The  accompany ing  descriptions  of  eighteen 

books,  printed  in  British  America  in  the  seventeenth  century,  which 

are  not  mentioned  in  your  Lists  nor  in  that  of  Mr.  Paine,  are  taken 

from   copies   in    the  John   Carter   Brown   Library  or  in  the  Harris 

^^^       Collection  of  American  Poetry  in  the  Brown  University  Library. 

^:^  The  earliest  American  imprint,  —  using  the  word  in  its  more  general 

sense,  —  in  Mr.  Brown's  library  is  the  Dotrina  Breue  of  1543-44,  a 
religious  manual  prepared  by  Bishop  Zumarraga,  the  first  official  head 
of  the  church  in  Mexico,  "in  plain  language  for  the  common  people." 
/  The  imprint  of   this  volume   reads:    Impssa  e   la   misma   ciudad   d* 

Mexico  por  su  madado  y  a  su  costa.  Alio  d'  M.  dxliij ;  "  printed  in 
y^^  Mexico  by  direction  and  at  the  expense  of  Bishop  Zumarraga  in  1543." 

This  statement  on  the  title  is  supplemented  by  the  colophon,  which 

-^  says    that   the   work   was  completed   June    14,    1544 :    Acabo  se   de 

imprimir  a  .  xiiij.  dias  del  mes  de  Junio :  del  ano  de.  M.  d.  quare  ta  y 
qtro  alios.  The  volume  consists  of  eighty-four  small  quarto  leaves, 
printed  in  gothic  type. 

S!  Garcia  Icazbalceta,  in  his  admirable  Bibliografia  Mexicana  del 
Siglo  XVI,  printed  in  Mexico  in  1886,  mentions  three  earlier  American 
imprints,  of  which  there  is  reason  to  suppose  that  copies  are  still  in 
existence.  The  earliest  of  these  was  printed  in  Mexico  in  1539, 
according  to  a  very  circumstantial  description  of  the  book  in  the  well- 
known  volume  of  Cartas  de  Indias,  issued  by  the  Spanish  Government, 
from  the  office  of  the  Ministerio  de  Fomento,  in  1877,  page  787.  Un- 
fortunately, the  whereabouts  of  an  original  copy  from  which  this  de- 
scription could  have  been  taken,  has  been  as  yet  successfully  concealed 
or  forgotten.  Of  the  next  earliest  surviving  product  of  the  Mexican 
press,  two  leaves  are  all  that  are  known.  These  clearly  formed  the 
end,  the  last  three  pages,  of  a  Manual  de  Adultos  printed  in  1540. 
They  have  been  reproduced  in  facsimile  from  the  originals  in  the 
library  of  the  late  D.  Pascual  de  Gayangos,  in  the  privately  printed 


Introduccion  de  la  Imprenta  en  America^  translated  by  S'.  M.  R.  Zarco 
del  Valle  from  Harrisse's  Bibliotheca  Americana  Vetustissima.  They 
are  also  given  in  S'  Icazbalceta's  Bihliografia,  from  a  photolithograph 
made  by  his  son,  S''.  D.  Luis  Garcia  Pimentel,  the  present  possessor  of 
his  magnificent  library.  The  third  is  an  account  of  the  terrible 
Guatemala  earthquake  of  1541,  which  was  printed  in  Mexico  very 
shortly  after  its  occurrence.  A  copy  of  this  is  supposed  to  exist  in 
Madrid. 

The  Dotrina  printed  in  the  spring  of  1544  was  the  first  of  a  series 
of  tractates  edited  by  Bishop  Zumdrraga,  which  were  issued  during  that 
year.  These  works,  each  of  which  is  in  Mr.  Brown's  library,  com- 
prised the  Tripartito  of  Dr.  Juan  Gerson,  which  contains  the  first 
woodcut  known  to  have  been  printed,  although  not  necessarily  made,  in 
America ;  the  Compendio  Breve  of  Dionisio  Richel,  in  two  editions,  one 
of  which  is  undated  ;  and  the  Dotrina  Cristiana  of  Fr.  Pedro  de 
Cordoba.  During  the  succeeding  years,  additions  were  made  to  this 
series,  and  of  these  this  library  has  the  Doctrina  Cristiana  of  1546, 
and  the  Regla  Christiana  Breve  of  1547.  Two  other  books  printed  in 
America  before  1550  are  also  represented  here.  One  is  a  fragment  of 
a  work  in  the  Mexican  language,  lacking  both  beginning  and  end,  so 
that  there  is  nothing  except  the  internal  evidence  of  type  and  press 
work  to  establish  its  date.  Sr  Icazbalceta  assigned  it,  after  careful 
examination  and  comparison,  to  the  year  1548  or  thereabouts.  The 
other,  of  which  no  copy  was  known  when  the  BihUografia  was  pub- 
lished, is  a  Copilacion  breue  de  vn  tratado  de  sant  Buenauentura  que  se 
llama :  Mistica  theologia  .  .  .  impresso  .  .  .  Mexico  :  en  casa  de  Juan 
pablos.  Acabo  se  de  imprimir  a  xxiij.  dias  del  mes  de  Hebrero.  Afio  de 
nra  saluacio  de.  M.  d.  y  quarenta  y  nueue  aiios.    (23  February  1549.) 

A  dictionary  of  the  Spanish  and  Mexican  languages  which  was  com- 
piled by  Fr.  Alonso  de  Molina,  and  printed  in  1555,  is  perhaps  the 
best  known  of  American  incunabula.  This  work  has  long  enjoyed  a 
reputation  for  extreme  rarity,  and  although  a  number  of  copies  have 
appeared  in  auction  and  bookseller's  catalogues,  there  is  hardly  one  of 
these  which  is  not  described  as  showing  all  the  signs  of  continued  hard 
usage,  resulting  in  the  destruction  of  considerable  portions  of  the 
original  volumes.  Only  one  complete  copy  has  been  reported,  and  this 
was  made  up  from  two  imperfect  copies.  Mr.  Brown's  perfect  copy  is 
preserved  in  what  appears  to  be  a  contemporary  American  binding  of 
wood  covered  with  decorated  leather.  The  Molina  Dictionary  pos- 
sesses much  more  than  a  mere  bibliographic  interest,  in  that  it  is  the 
foundation  for  all  study  of  the  native  speech  of  the  Mexican  aborigines. 
Of  equal  linguistic  value,  and  of  greater  actual  rarity,  is  the  Dictionary 
in  the  Tarascan  language  of  Michuacan,  prepared  by  Fr.  Maturino 
Gilberti  and  published  in  1559.     This  Franciscan  friar  was  one  of  the 


most  productive  and  oue  of  the  most  trustworthy  of  the  early  mission- 
aries who  devoted  themselves  to  the  study  of  the  speech  of  the  natives 
among  whom  they  labored.  The  great  rarity  of  his  works  is  easily 
accounted  for  by  the  usage  to  which  they  must  have  been  put  by  the 
pupils  in  the  missionary  colleges  and  schools  for  whom  they  were 
printed.  Mr.  Brown  has,  besides  the  Dictionary  of  1559,  the  Arte  de 
la  legxia  de  Michuaca  and  the  Thesoro  Spiritval,  both  printed  in  1558, 
together  with  the  enlarged  edition  of  the  latter  published  in  1575. 
He  has  also  the  Dialogo  de  Doctrina,  a  folio  volume  of  some  six  hun- 
dred pages,  the  largest  product  from  the  shop  of  Mexico's  first  printer, 
who  was  engaged  upon  it  during  the  first  five  mouths  of  1559.  This 
set  of  Gilberti's  works  is  supplemented  by  three  manuscript  volumes, 
written  by  him,  or  by  a  scribe  at  his  dictation,  containing  a  portion  of  a 
dictionary  in  Tarascan  and  a  number  of  sermons  in  that  language. 

The  earliest  American  printed  code  of  laws,  the  Ordenagas  y  copi- 
lacion  de  leyes  published  by  "  the  good  viceroy ''  D.  Antonio  de  Men- 
doza  in  1548,  is  represented  by  an  edition  which  formed  one  of  an 
interesting  series  of  reprints  of  early  works  on  Mexican  history  which 
were  issued  in  the  form  of  feuilletons  with  the  Mexican  newspaper  La 
Sistema  Postal  during  the  spring  of  1880.  This  code  was  followed  in 
1556  by  the  important  Constituciones  del  Argohispado  y  prouincia  de  la 
muy  ynsigne  y  muy  leal  ciudad  de  Tenuxtitla  Mexico,  which  concerned 
the  populace  almost  as  much  as  any  purely  civil  ordinances.  Puga's 
Cedulario  or  collection  of  royal  orders  directed  to  the  government  of 
New  Spain,  was  printed  in  1563.  This  volume  is  a  most  valuable 
source  of  materials  for  the  study  of  the  Spanish  domination  in  America. 
Its  aggravating  omissions  and  blundering  misprints  in  names  and  dates 
render  it  an  unsafe  reliance  in  studying  the  period  preceding  its  appear- 
ance. During  the  succeeding  decades,  however,  it  was  the  standard 
handbook  for  the  administrators  and  the  legislators  of  Spanish  Mexico, 
and  their  actions,  except  for  such  supplementary  legislation  as  came  to 
their  attention,  were  based  upon  its  pages.  As  so  often  happens,  the 
fame  of  this  volume  and  its  reputed  rarity  have  led  to  the  discovery  of  a 
considerable  number  of  copies  of  the  original  edition. 

The  most  splendid  product  of  the  Mexican  press,  a  volume  whose 
pre-eminence  has  been  challenged  only  two  or  three  times  during  the 
three  and  a  half  centuries  which  have  passed  since  its  publication,  is 
the  Missale  Romanum  Ordinarium,  printed  in  the  city  of  Mexico  in 
1561.  It  is  a  magnificent  folio  volume  of  330  leaves,  printed  in  red 
and  black,  with  historiated  initials  and  occasional  woodcut  borders,  and 
the  necessary  musical  notations. 


The  establishment  of  a  printing  press  in  America  was  determined 
upon,  in  all  probability,  at  one  of  the  frequent  conferences  held  in 
Spain  during  the  winter  of  1533-34,  between  the  viceroy-elect  and  the 
iDishop-elect  of  New  Spain,  Don  Antonio  de  Mendoza  and  Fray  Juan 
de  Zumarraga.  Negociations  were  entered  into  with  a  leading  Sevillian 
printer,  Juan  Cromberger,  who  agreed  to  organize  a  branch  of  his 
establishment  in  the  city  of  Mexico.  Type  and  press  were  selected  and 
shipped  to  Vera  Cruz,  most  probably  on  the  spring  voyage  of  1536. 
It  is  supposed  that  Juan  Pablos,  a  native  of  Brescia  in  Lombardy, 
accompanied  the  outfit  as  Cromberger's  representative,  and  that  he  took 
charge  of  the  American  branch  of  the  business.  He  may  have  had  with 
him  as  an  assistant,  Esteban  Martin,  whose  name  appears  on  the  town 
records  of  Mexico  as  an  applicant  for  citizenship  in  1539,  with  the  de- 
scriptive appellation  "  iniprimidor."  This  is  several  years  earlier  than 
the  first  recorded  mention  of  Pablos. 

As  soon  as  the  press  was  in  running  order  in  the  New  World,  it 
was  found  that  the  supply  of  paper  brought  from  Spain  was  barely 
sufficient  for  the  official  circulars,  announcements,  and  similar  work  of 
transient  but  instant  importance.  This  is  presumably  the  reason  why 
one  or  possibly  two  religious  manuals  in  the  native  language  were  the 
only  productions,  of  sufficient  size  to  be  called  books,  which  were 
printed  prior  to  the  surviving  publications  already  mentioned.  A 
similar  difficulty,  due  to  the  distance  from  the  source  of  supply,  appar- 
ently arose  during  the  printing  of  the  Missale  of  1561.  An  examination 
of  different  parts  of  that  volume  shows  that  the  stock  of  red  ink  gave 
out  while  the  volume  was  on  the  press,  and  rather  than  submit  to  the 
long  delay  before  a  fresh  importation  from  Europe  could  arrive,  the 
printer  probably  attempted  to  manufacture  something  which  would 
supply  the  deficiency.  This,  at  least,  is  the  most  plausible  explanation 
of  the  noticeable  deterioration  and  the  varying  quality  of  the  red  with 
which  the  later  pages  of  the  work  were  printed. 

Juan  Cromberger  died  in  1540,  but  his  American  establishment  con- 
tinued for  four  years  to  issue  its  works  "  from  the  house  of  Cromberger." 
In  1542,  his  heirs  secured  a  renewal  or  an  enrollment  of  their  privileges, 
by  which  they  were  entitled  to  charge  a  quarter  of  a  real  for  each 
printed  sheet,  and  to  receive  an  allowance  of  one  hundred  per  cent 
upon  all  books  imported  from  Europe,  in  consideration  for  the  main- 
tenance of  their  press  in  the  New  World.  But  the  Mexican  office,  de- 
prived of  the  oversight  and  direction  of  the  Sevillian  master  printer, 
appears  to  have  deteriorated  to  some  extent  in  the  years  following  his 
death.  The  prompt  supply  of  paper  from  Europe  was  neglected, 
resulting  in  the  temporary  stoppage  of  the  press  in  Mexico,  and  other 
signs  show  that  the  business  suffered  from  the  absence  of  active  inter- 


ested  management.  As  a  result  of  these  circumstances,  the  heirs  of 
Cromberger  were  induced  to  exchange  their  printing  plant  for  other 
forms  of  American  investment,  and  the  type  and  press  became  the 
property  of  Juan  Pablos.  The  negociations  must  have  lasted  over 
three  years,  from  the  end  of  1544,  when  Cromberger's  name  appeared 
for  the  last  time  in  an  American  imprint,  until  1548,  when  that  of 
Pablos  was  used  for  the  first  time.  In  the  interim,  such  books  as  the 
latter  printed  were  published  without  the  name  of  the  printer. 

For  ten  years  Pabhos,  whose  Italian  name  may  have  been  Paoli,  con- 
ducted the  business  without  a  rival.  During  this  period  he  published 
twenty-five  volumes  which  have  survived  to  the  present  day.  These 
included,  besides  the  linguistic  works  used  by  the  missionaries  and  their 
pupils,  a  number  of  treatises,  among  which  were  four  very  learned 
works  from  the  pen  of  Fr.  Alonso  de  la  Vera  Cruz,  for  use  in  the 
newly  organized  University  of  Mexico.  One  of  these  volumes,  the  Latin 
*' Dialogues"  written  by  Cervantes  Salazar  in  1554,  which  have  been 
reprinted  with  a  Spanish  translation  by  S^  Icazbalceta,  contains  an  ex- 
tremely interesting  description  of  the  new  University,  as  well  as  of 
other  portions  of  the  city  of  Mexico.  In  the  colophon  to  another  of 
his  volumes,  the  Constituciones  del  Argohispado^  Pablos  stated  that  this 
was  "  printed  by  Juan  Pablos  of  Lombardy,  the  first  printer  in  this 
large,  magnificent  and  very  loyal  city  of  Mexico,  10  February  1556." 
This  statement  is  the  principal  authority  for  supposing  that  Pablos 
came  from  Spain  in  1536  in  charge  of  Cromberger's  establishment. 

The  publishing  business  seems  to  have  been  a  profitable  one,  for  in 
1558  Antonio  de  Espinosa,  a  citizen  of  Mexico,  presented  himself 
before  the  Spanish  court  with  a  petition  in  which  he  begged  that  the 
exclusive  privileges  granted  to  Pablos  by  the  Viceroys  might  be  annulled, 
on  the  ground  that  this  monopoly  stifled  competition  and  so  prevented 
the  Mexicans  from  securing  as  good  work  as  might  and  should  be  done 
in  the  New  World,  and  that  the  prices  for  printing  were  maintained  at 
an  excessive  figure.  Espinosa  appears  to  have  had  friends  at  court,  for 
an  order  was  promptly  issued  in  which  the  viceroy  was  directed  to 
abolish  the  monopoly,  declaring  that  the  trade  of  printing  should 
thenceforth  remain  free  and  open  to  anyone  who  desired  to  follow  it,  as 
was  the  case  in  Spain.  Further  instructions  accompanied  this  order, 
directing  the  viceroy  to  provide  a  suitable  estate  for  Espinosa,  to  include 
a  town  lot  on  which  he  could  erect  his  printing  house,  and  to  assist  him 
in  any  other  ways  which  might  advance  the  interests  of  the  new 
establishment. 

Espinosa's  name  and  printer's  mark  appeared  for  the  first  time  on  a 
Latin  grammar  by  Pi  Gilberti  printed  in  1559,  the  work  being  a  dis- 
tinct improvement  upon  any  of  the  productions  of  Pablos.  This  initial 
success  was  followed  by  a  more  serious  undertaking,  most  admirably 


10 

accomplished,  the  splendid  Missale  Romanum^  which  was  completed  in 
September,  1561.  Espinosa  continued  for  fifteen  years  to  print  many 
of  the  most  interesting  and  most  important  works  published  in  the  New 
World. 

The  name  of  Pablos  appeared  for  the  last  time  on  a  book  printed  in 
1560.  Three  years  later,  the  type  which  he  had  used  reappears  on  the 
pages  of  Puga's  Gedulario,  which  was  printed  by  Pedro  Ocharte. 
Ocharte  conducted  this  business  for  thirty  years  with  considerable 
success.  After  Espinosa  retired,  in  1575,  Ocharte  probably  bought  at 
least  the  most  important  portion  of  his  stock,  including  the  type  and 
wood  blocks  used  in  the  Missale  of  1561,  for  these  reappear  in  the 
Psalterio  and  the  Antiphonarium  printed  by  Ocharte  in  1584  and  1589. 
During  the  last  two  years  of  the  century,  the  business  was  transferred 
to  his  son,  Melchior  Ocharte,  who  moved  the  establishment  to  the 
Franciscan  college  at  Tlaltelolco  Mexico,  where  he  continued  to  issue 
school  books,  religious  tracts,  and  other  approved  publications,  well 
into   the  seventeenth   century. 

Pedro  Balli's  name  first  appears  as  the  printer  of  a  book  printed  in 
1574,  the  year  preceding  the  retirement  of  Espinosa.  His  shop  con- 
tinued in  active  operation  until  1600,  the  most  important  issues  being 
linguistic  works,  none  of  which  possess  any  especial  typographic 
interest. 

Italy  furnished  the  first  printer  for  South,  as  for  North  America. 
Antonio  Ricardo  of  Turin,  whose  name  at  home  may  have  been  Ricci- 
ardi,  set  up  a  press  in  Mexico,  next  the  Jesuit  college  of  Saints  Peter 
and  Paul,  during  the  year  1577.  He  printed  one  or  two  noteworthy 
volumes,  but  his  time  was  chiefly  occupied  in  providing  text  books  for 
the  pupils  in  the  college  under  the  supervision  of  their  Jesuit  instructors. 
Needless  to  say,  almost  none  of  these  has  survived.  The  two  or  three 
copies  which  are  known  have  been  brought  to  light  since  the  publication 
of  S'  Icazbalceta's  Bibliografia,  through  the  researches  of  Dr.  Nicolas 
Leon,  the  Mexican  student  of  this  generation  who  most  nearly  succeeds 
to  S'  Icazbalceta's  position  in  the  fields  of  bibliography  and  of  history. 
In  1579,  Ricardo  removed  his  stock-in-trade  to  Peru,  where  he  estab- 
lished at  Lima  the  first  American  press  outside  of  Mexico.  I  have 
been  unable  as  yet  to  secure  any  good  account  of  the  works  issued  from 
his  press  or  from  those  of  his  successors  in  the  Southern  Continent. 

Trusting  that  I  have  answered  your  queries  satisfactorily,  I  am 
Very  faithfully  yours 

George  Parker  Winship. 

Hon.  Samuel  A.  Green,  LL.D., 

Massachusetts  Historical  Society, 
Boston. 


